Riot police and protesters clash at Bankova KievUkraine. December 2013(image by Wikipedia)

With the cat out of the bag about exactly what type of "freedom fighters" that the US is backing in Ukraine, thanks largely to the selfie video of Svoboda party thugs pummeling a Ukranian TV executive it is obvious to any and all outside of The Homeland cocoon that the Obama regime is lying. The unified stone wall of bullshit that is the US state-corporate media parroting the official line on what was actually a neocon instigated overthrow of a democratically elected leader who had just agreed to placate protesters with early elections is truly something to behold. It brings to mind the march toward the unprovoked attack and subsequent occupation of Iraq, a country that did not even remotely threaten the US by the Bush administration and the neocon ideologues that drove policy in the early years of the new American century. The wall to wall vilification of Saddam Hussein was the prototype for the ongoing spree of demagoguery directed at Russian president Vladimir Putin and which has been so withering that it is obvious that this is all about more than Ukraine. It is about Snowden and Syria as well as a pitched battle to save what is the fully mutated form of parasitic global finance capitalism as it continues to devour and destroy.

The assault, which prompted condemnation in the West, presents an important test for Ukraine's new pro-Western government.

First, it's eager to show a modern, democratic face to the world as it enters a landmark political association pact with the European Union. Perhaps more gravely, the nationalist violence plays directly into the hands of Russia's propaganda spinners: State-controlled media eagerly used the incident to portray Kiev's leadership as a hive of radical nationalists who terrorize Russian speakers, justifying the Kremlin's moves to protect them in Ukraine.

Tensions are high in Ukraine as the government debates whether to pull its troops from the Crimean peninsula, where Russian forces are seizing Ukrainian ships and evicting soldiers from military bases. Crimeans are eagerly lining up to apply for Russian passports, while Russian tanks and troops amass near the border with eastern Ukraine.

For Ihor Miroshnichenko, a lawmaker with the nationalist Svoboda party, those scenes of Russian domination were all too much.

And the broadcast of Russian celebrations seemed to add insult to injury.

To vent his rage, he led a group of Svoboda colleagues in storming the office of the First National channel's chief, Oleksandr Panteleymonov, used an insulting term used to describe Russians and punched him repeatedly, while an aide recorded the scene on video.

"Today Ukraine is in a state of war and in a state of partial occupation by Russia. And when war is going on, giving the air to the enemy -- I believe it is state treason," Miroshenichenko, a former journalist who sits on the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, told the Hromadske online television channel.

"I cannot imagine that Poland which was occupied by Hitler would give him airtime on the radio so that Fuhrer could explain his position."

Miroshnichenko admitted that he may have overreacted -- although he refused to acknowledge that he actually beat Panteleymonov.

The TV executive said in a statement Friday that he is ready to leave his post, but only if there is a legitimate government decision to replace him.

"These are not our methods," Yatsenyuk said in a statement. "A country which is going toward the European Union will continue to profess the basic principles and values of the European Community."

His position is complicated by the fact that Svoboda, a vocal force in parliament that took part in the protests that ousted the pro-Russian government, received several key posts in the Cabinet -- including prosecutor general, the very figure who will be in charge of investigating the TV station attack.